FDS Insight Magazine Jun - Sep 2023
46 drugs through punishment and coercion. The proposals, if formally coded into law, would see the government double down on an ineffective and harmful strategy that curbs fundamental civil liberties, overextends policing powers and disproportionately harms marginalised communities. Research shows – and has shown for some time now – that cracking down on drug supply and use does not reduce drug-related harms. Even the Home Office’s own evaluation of its current framework, published in July 2017, has stated that the 1.6 billion British pounds ($1.9 billion) a year spent on drug law enforcement has little impact on drug availability and found no clear links between the intensity of punitive enforcement and levels of use. Public health experts in the UK and across the world are in consensus that punishment-focused drug reduction policies produce harmful outcomes. Just last month, 500 public health and criminal justice experts expressed serious concerns over the government’s recent proposals in an open letter organised by my organisation, Release and Transform Drug Policy Foundation. ‘The proposed extension of punitive policing targeting people who use drugs runs contrary to the overwhelming body of evidence and threatens to draw limited resources into policies likely to exacerbate a range of social and health harms,’ the experts said. ‘We urge the Government to instead develop a genuinely public health centred approach and focus on evidence-based health interventions that target those in need, while avoiding harmful punishment and criminalisation of the very groups we are seeking to support.’ Experts had previously outlined what a ‘genuinely public health centred approach’ would look like. In December 2021, virtually every medical association and royal college of health practitioners in the UK signed an open letter calling for the government to set up overdose prevention centres (OPCs) – facilities where individuals consume their own drugs supervised by trained staff who provide health support, including reversing overdoses. Available evidence demonstrates that, unlike various punishments imposed on drug users and suppliers, OPCs are highly effective in preventing drug deaths. The UK, as it struggles with a public health crisis of drug-related deaths, is in desperate need of such evidence- backed, life-saving solutions. Indeed, in 2022, 4,564 people died as a result of illegal drug use across the country. This unprecedented figure, the highest since records began, amounts to 12 deaths a day – more than three times more than the number lost to road traffic accidents. Despite the gravity of the crisis, policymakers have refused to heed the calls for establishing OPCs, claiming they would be unable to do so without infringing the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act – a law they can easily amend.
Made with FlippingBook
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQ5MjU=